CQC places Trafford GP Practice into Special Measures

England’s Chief Inspector of General Practice has placed a Trafford GP into special measures following its latest inspection by the Care Quality Commission.

A specialist team of inspectors rated the service provided by Dr Michael Florin’s practice in Sale, Trafford, as Inadequate for being safe and well-led, requires improvement to be responsive and effective, and good for being caring. The practice has been given an overall rating of Inadequate.

Under CQC’s new programme of inspections, led by Professor Steve Field, Chief Inspector of General Practice, all of England’s GP practices are being inspected and given a rating.

Dr Florin’s practice was inspected in October 2014 by an inspection team which included a GP advisor and an Expert by Experience. A full report of this inspection has been published today.

On previous inspections over the last 18 months, CQC had told Dr Florin that he must make improvements to comply with national regulations protecting the safety and welfare of patients.

In October, inspectors found that care and treatment was provided in a clean and well-maintained environment. Equipment was in good condition and serviced and patients were complimentary about the service.

While staff had received training in safeguarding children and vulnerable adults, there were no systems in place to review and monitor patients who may be at risk or vulnerable within the practice population.

Medicines management processes were ineffective and policies and procedures were not followed. Infection control and prevention policies were not specific to the practice and recommendations from an audit in August 2014 had still not been completed.

There was no effective system to investigate and learn from incidents that occurred at the practice.

The Care Quality Commission has identified seven areas for improvement, including:

• The practice must ensure that staff have appropriate policies, procedures and guidance to carry out their roles in a safe and effective manner.
• There must be systems in place to review and monitor patients who may be at risk or vulnerable.
• The practice must take action to ensure that they comply with the Code of Practice for health and social care on the prevention and control of infections.
• The practice must take action to ensure necessary employment checks are in place for all staff.

CQC has been working closely with the Trafford clinical commissioning group, and NHS England to support the practice while it addresses the issues identified by the inspection.

Sue McMillan, Deputy Chief Inspector of General Practice said:

“We know that Dr Florin has made some progress to improve since our first inspection in 2013, when we found significant concerns.

“I note that we have rated this practice Good for caring and the patients are complimentary about the service. However this latest inspection has shown that this practice has still got some way to go if it is to deliver the high quality and consistent care which everyone is entitled to receive.

“Significant areas of concern remain. There were no appropriate policies or guidance in place to support staff to ensure that risks to patients were identified, monitored and reviewed and there were no appropriate processes in place to support staff to deliver high quality evidence-based care.

“I do not believe that the practice is likely to resolve its challenges without the external support offered by special measures. I believe that with the help offered by NHS England, this practice can address the issues we have identified. After six months we will inspect again to check its progress, but if we find that the service provided by this practice remains inadequate, we will consider taking steps to cancel its registration with CQC.”

Patients registered with the practices being placed into special measures should be aware that the package of support being offered by NHS England and the Royal College of GPs will ensure that there are no immediate risks to patient safety at these GP practices whilst improvements are being made. These practices will not close.

Ends

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